mangafandomcom-20200224-history
List of Ranma ½ characters
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi which was also adapted into an anime series. The story revolves around a 16-year old boy named Ranma Saotome who was trained from early childhood in karate. As a result of an accident during a training journey, he is cursed to become a girl when splashed with cold water, but hot water will change him back into a boy. Creation and conception Characters Saotome family Ranma Saotome is the series main protagonist. He spent most of his youth on training trips with his father. The last of these trips led them to Jusenkyo, China. There he fell into a cursed spring and ever since, when he is doused with cold water, changes into a female version of himself. His male half is voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi in the Japanese anime and by Sarah Strange and Richard Ian Cox in the English dub. His female half is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara in the Japanese anime and by Brigitta Dau and Venus Terzo in the English dub. Genma Saotome is Ranma's father and the sensei of the Saotome Dojo of "Anything Goes Martial Arts." He trained with Soun under Happosai, but due to being treated like slaves, they eventually sealed him within a cave and opened their own schools. He takes Ranma on a continuous training trip to perfect his skills, and his wife, Nodoka, makes him promise to turn Ranma into a "man-among-men" under the threat of forcing them to commit seppuku. During their training, Genma falls into a cursed spring, which gives him a giant panda curse. He and Ranma eventually return to Japan to fulfill an arranged marriage between Ranma and Akane to keep the school going. He hides from his wife by staying as a panda while she is around, and she simply believes Ranko, Ranma's female form, has "Mr. Panda" as a pet. Genma follows his own interpretation of the Anything Goes Martial Arts code, which isn't exactly all that virtuous itself to begin with. Though he himself claims to be a model martial artist, and makes a point of telling Ranma about the right thing to do, he is not above acting cowardly, stealing a dowry, or only looking out for his own well being. In one incident, while starving, he even agrees to trade the infant Ranma for a meal of fish. He is very open with his panda form, and regularly uses it to avoid questions as pandas can't speak. In panda form, he communicates by writing on wooden signs which he seems to pull out of a type of hammer space in that form. Genma is an extremely proficient martial artist. He is extremely strong and agile despite his size, and his panda form increases his abililities even further. He very seldom uses his special techiques, which include the Umisenken that allows him to hide his aura and execute ambush attacks from behind; the Yamasenken that allows him to make opponents lose focus, create powerful vacuum-slice barrages, or strike deadly, piercing blows; and his most powerful technique, a gigantic battle-aura similar to Happosai's, but can only use it for very brief periods (possibly just half a minute) before overexertion. He is voiced by Kenichi Ogata in the Japanese anime and by Robert O. Smith in the English dub. Nodoka Saotome is Ranma's mother. She allowed Genma to take him away from her at an early age under the condition that Genma raise him to become a "man among men" or both of them would commit seppuku. She always has a katana with her for that purpose. When she is around, Ranma tries to remain in female form and pretends to be Akane's cousin from the countryside by the name of Ranko. Genma, who is particularly terrified of her, stays in panda form and pretends to be Ranko's pet. Towards the end of the manga, Nodoka learns the truth and decides not to force them to commit seppuku so long as Ranma stays interested in girls and continues to fight like a "man among men." She is voiced by Masako Ikeda in the Japanese anime and by Lisa Bunting in the English dub. Tendo family Akane Tendo is the second main character of the series. She is chosen by her family to be engaged to Ranma to carry on the Tendo family dojo, an arrangement neither of them is happy with, though, as the series progresses they slowly fall in love with each other. She is a capable martial artist and quite popular with the boys, though she would prefer a little less attention. She is voiced by Noriko Hidaka in the Japanese anime and by Myriam Sirois in the English dub. Soun Tendo is the current master of the "Anything Goes Martial Arts" Tendo Dojo. He studied under the founder of the style, Happosai, with Genma, who is a close friend. Their training was nothing short of abuse and slave labor, so they eventually managed to get away from him. He and Genma set an arranged marriage between his daughter, Akane, and Ranma in order to have some one succeed the style, and despite protests from both parties, they believe the two will eventually grow to love each other. Soun is very emotional, often brought to tears just by thinking of a sad thought. He is very respectful to his deceased wife, whose grave he visits regularly and he constantly mourns her. He tends to become very angry whenever he suspects that Ranma is 'cheating' on Akane or otherwise is treating her badly, being intensely paranoid in this regard. Soun frequently fights clad fully in traditional samurai armor. He is skilled in both hand to hand combat and handling a wide variety of archaic weaponry. He is voiced by Ryūsuke Ōbayashi in the Japanese anime and by David Kaye in the English dub. Nabiki Tendo is Akane's older sister. She is a completely amoral, and egotistic opportunist businesswoman, and regularly turns extremely ruthless, callous, dishonourable, petty, sadistic, and manipulative for the cause of profit and entertainment, with no apparent limits to how low she will stoop, and (similarly to Shampoo) is completely at peace with, easygoing, flippant, and happy about being this way, in possession of both sarcastic observation skills, laid-back enjoyment of the chaos, and a very mean-spirited sense of humour, being completely sane and balanced, and as such far more genuinely evil than virtually any other character in the series. She is recurrently used as a satire of excessive materialism, with her extreme greed highlighted for comedic effect. Nabiki also tends to sell useful or nonworking items others have need of, and ships images of Ranma's girl form to admirers or as prints around the world. Although a hedonist who wants to actually enjoy life, she is very quick-thinking, an adaptable efficient strategist, expert actress capable of ventriloquism, and nearly completely unflappable when she feels like it. She is voiced by Minami Takayama in the Japanese anime and by Angela Costain in the English dub. Kasumi Tendo is the eldest daughter of the Tendo family. She acts as the family matriarch following the death of her mother, and she does most of the housework. She has no interest in younger men, and Tofu Ono is deeply in love with her, though she has no idea about it and simply considers him to be odd. She is invariably shown as cheerful and pleasant, seldom seeming fazed by the wild events that surround her. She amiably helps to clean up any destruction, and generally seems content in working hard to take care of her family, the household, and make any guests feel at home. She is voiced by Kikuko Inoue in the Japanese anime and by Willow Johnson in the English dub. Joketsuzoku (Tribe of Women Heroes; The Chinese Amazons) Shampoo is the village champion of the Chinese Amazons, who is defeated by Ranma in his male and female forms. The laws of her village force her to attempt to kill Ranma's female form and marry his male form. She eventually learns that he is cursed, and focuses on marrying him. She trains under her great-grandmother, Cologne, and eventually obtains a curse that turns her into a cat, which doesn't help with Ranma, who has a phobia of them. She helps run the Cat Café with Cologne, and often delivers food. She is actively pursued by Mousse, but she generally shows nothing but disdain for him. Shampoo speaks with a simplified mode of speech, most notably rapidly switching between ignoring and using personal pronouns, because of having a limited amount of time to learn the Japanese language. She is described as "innocent and aggressive", being very affectionate and cheerful, while also being very devious and forceful. She is gladly willing to assassinate any "obstacle" in the path of a goal or for the sake of convenience, to brainwash Ranma into loving her, to relentlessly and severely bully others for years, or to put others, including her "groom", through sadistic manipulation games for her own amusement. She has very little modesty, and attempts to use nudity to seduce Ranma in public places. Shampoo is highly skilled in unarmed combat, possesses considerable speed and agility, and is strong enough to casually walk through reinforced stone walls on a regular basis. She can also efficiently use certain supernatural acupressure techniques for instant unconsciousness, temporary mind-control, or selective memory-removal. Her weakness is her lack of durability, as she is recurrently defeated by single forceful attacks. She uses a pair of "chúi" as her primary weapons. Shampoo is voiced by Rei Sakuma in the Japanese anime and by Cathy Weseluck in the English dub. She is sometimes compared to Lum Invader from Takahashi's earlier Urusei Yatsura due to the similarities in their character designs and openly clingy personalities. Shampoo's bald, bespectacled, and moustasche-wearing, "sterotypically Chinese" father has only appeared occasionally as a background character in the manga or anime, when watching her supposed training/punishment against Cologne at Jusenkyo, or working as a cook in the restaurant. However, he did appear as the final opponent of an early 90s video game, wherein he challenged Ranma due to the perceived bad treatment of his daughter. Cologne is the great-grandmother of Shampoo. She accompanies Shampoo on her return to Japan, and opens the Cat Café in Nerima. She is a contemporary of Happosai, and well over three hundred years old. She calls Ranma "bride-groom" and "son-in-law" due to her attempts to have him marry Shampoo, and just to watch him become enraged. She is a grand master of martial arts, and occasionally teaches Ranma and his rivals new techniques. She gets around by pogoing on a gnarled wooden staff that she sometimes uses as a weapon. She is voiced by Miyoko Aso in the anime adaptation, Elan Ross Gibson and Lynda Boyd in the English adaptation, and by Kathleen Barr in the English adaptation of the OVAs and movies. She is the grand master of the Chinese Amazon martial arts, allowing her to manipulate water and ice, create whirlwinds using an opponent's aura against them, shatter inanimate objects with a simple touch, fire chi-blasts, and touch pressure points to make a person feel like they are burning with even the slightest amount of heat. She is the only martial artist in the series whose skill rivals that of Happosai, enabling her to, for example, casually defeat either Ranma or Taro's chimaera form. Cologne is knowledgeable in several other disciplines such as arcane lore, cooking, Chinese mythology, and magic artifacts. Mousse is a male Chinese Amazon, who is in an unrequited love with his childhood friend, Shampoo. He is extremely jealous of Ranma, who is the target of Shampoo's affection, and he believes he needs to defeat or kill Ranma in order to have her care for him. She states that she will reject him even in such a case, and often attacks him because of his obsessiveness. Despite that he has managed to become a far more dangerous fighter than Shampoo, she almost never affords him any measure of respect. He has extremely bad eyesight, which requires him to wear thick glasses, but he usually has them concealed within his robes or propped up on his forehead, leading him to sometimes mistake people and inanimate objects for other people. Due to his bad eyesight, he walks into a cursed spring, which turns him into a duck. Although Mousse's view is blurry without his glasses, and below average even with them, he has apparently learned to compensate for combat purposes, as this has not hindered him from high accuracy entirely without assistance (such as instantly snagging a small branch with a chain during freefall). Mousse is an extremely skilled, swift, strong, and dangerous martial artist, who fights by using hidden weapons, which includes chains, blades, darts, iron balls, hidden knives, bombs, tear gas, and even yo-yos and various silly household appliances, manifesting quantities far beyond what he is realistically able to carry in his long sleeves and robe. He calls this ability "dark magic" simply because he is hiding objects in a dark place. He can hide weapons in the feathers of his duck form and use them proficiently while flying. He is also extremely skilled in the unarmed Joketsuzoku style used by other Amazons. He is technically almost, but not quite, in the same league as Ranma and Ryoga, apparently at least as strong as the former, and likely deadlier than either, but has so far never managed to actually prevail during confrontations, despite fighting unarmed combatants, whether due to a disadvantage in skill, speed, reflexes, flexibility, or combinations thereof. He is voiced by Toshihiko Seki in the Japanese anime and by Brad Swaile in the English dub. Kuno family Tatewaki Kuno is a senior at Furinkan High School and the older brother of Kodachi Kuno. He is very interested in Akane, but after seeing Ranma in his female form, he also falls for the "Pigtailed Girl." He has a huge ego, creating the nickname "The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High," a moniker used by no one else. Despite constant defeats by Ranma, he is always confident in his abilities, and despite being told and even shown Ranma's transformation, he refuses to believe that Ranma is the girl that he desires. He has a strong rivalry with Kodachi, who similarly has a crush on Ranma and refuses to believe that the girl is the same person, often leading to confrontations. He is voiced by Hirotaka Suzuoki in the Japanese anime and by Ted Cole in the English dub. As captain of the kendo team at Furinkan High School, Tatewaki is the school's most powerful warrior before Ranma's arrival. Though he is initially no match for Ranma, after losing his memory for a time, he shows the potential to become far stronger. He is powerful while using Kendo, able to create "air pressure strikes" easily capable of destroying a stone pillar, and he later becomes able to spin rapidly, which creates a constant barrage of the strikes and makes his defense nearly impenetrable. He is very weak compared to the other characters while unarmed, so he carries several Bokken in case one breaks. Kodachi Kuno is the captain of the gymnastics team of the St. Bacchus School for Girls, who is referred to as "The Black Rose" (in Japanese, Kurobara no Kodachi) apparently due to her signature theatrical/melodramatic style of exiting a scene by leaving behind a swirling trail of black roses accompanied by high-octance laughter. She attacks other people during competitions in order to win by default, though she calls it "fighting in all fairness before the match." She becomes enamored with Ranma, and attempts to make him hers at any cost. She also hates Ranma's female form, believing "her" to be a rival for Ranma, while her brother hates the male form. She is a good cook who prepares elaborate meals, and she often uses culinary expertise to her advantage by placing poisons, toxins, serums, and other strange substances in her victims' food to attain something she wants from them. Kodachi is an expert in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, making her skilled in acrobatics and the use of balls, clubs, hoops, ribbons, and ropes as weapons. She is very agile, and she is not averse to using unorthodox methods in combat such as rigged weapons, explosives and various poisons. She is voiced by Saeko Shimazu in the Japanese anime and by Teryl Rothery, Erin Fitzgerald, and Sylvia Zaradic in the English dub. Principal Kuno is the Kuno siblings' long lost father and the principal at Akane and Ranma's school. He is obsessed with Hawaiian culture, and speaks with a Hawaiian accent. His disappearance and subsequent return is explained in the manga as being part of a study trip to learn the teaching methods used in America. On his return from Hawaii, his first action is to attempt to force standard haircuts on all students (buzz cuts for boys, bowl cuts for girls), which begins a rivalry between the Principal and Ranma Saotome. Principal Kuno is the only person to ever appear in Ranma 1/2 wearing a baseball uniform. He is voiced by Tatsuyuki Jinnai in the Japanese anime and by Scott McNeil in the English dub. Sasuke Sarugakure is the Kuno family's house ninja. Sasuke is a loyal servant and often tries to help Tatewaki defeat Ranma and steal Akane away from him. Despite his loyalty, Sasuke sometimes receives harsh treatment by Tatewaki. He has to live in poor conditions with minimal food and very little shelter or comforts. Sasuke is exclusive to the anime, and takes over many of Hikaru Gosunkugi's parts before that character is introduced to the anime. He is voiced by Shigeru Chiba in Japanese and Robert O. Smith in English. Other native Japanese Ryoga Hibiki is Ranma's long time, primary rival, the only one the latter has self stated to truly consider as such, and arguably the third main character of the series. He has no sense of direction and is always lost on long strenuous journeys. After spending months looking for male Ranma for leaving before their planned duel, Ryoga finally ends up at Jusenkyo in China, but is pushed into a cursed spring by female Ranma (while chasing Genma and not looking where she was going). Ever since then Ryoga turns into a black piglet when doused with cold water, which makes his constant wanderings much more dangerous from hungry hunters and predators, and he initially carries a large grudge. (For perspective, the traumatising Nekoken training that Ranma went through, never forgave and took plenty of revenge for after learning that he was stronger than his father, is a commonplace occurrence by Ryoga's standards.) Ryoga is the first major challenge to Ranma in Nerima. Their first fight showcases their strengths, and it is a close match. Akane accidentally discovers Ryoga in cursed form, and not knowing the pig's true identity, adopts him as her pet and names him P-chan. She is the first person to show him real kindness, and Ryoga falls head-over-heels in love with her, and consistently acts as a fierce protector from both real and imagined threats, whether in normal or cursed form. She even takes him to bed with her, and generally beats him severely with her sleep-movements. Ryoga accepts training from Cologne because he feels that he can use it to best Ranma, and win Akane's interest. Cologne is equally using Ryoga, hoping to remove Akane from the picture, which would in turn free Ranma to wed Shampoo. His training under Cologne makes Ryoga's body very durable. He toughens to the point that great impacts, such as being buried in a rockslide, or being struck with large boulders, cause no damage. Engaging Ranma for a second time, he forces Ranma to also rely on training from Cologne, used in an inventive manner, to counter his newly toughened constitution. When not upset Ryoga is usually shy, humble, helpful, and polite, especially around women. He also has strong chivalrous streaks, and consistently protects any maidens in distress, or victims of bullies, monsters, or bandits that he comes across. He tends to stock up on an assortments of gifts and local food specialties from the highly diverse locations where he ends up during his travels. Ryoga's grudge towards Ranma for causing his second curse eventually disappears, and is replaced with a mixture of romantic, as well as professional, rivalry. This morphs into something of a mutual respect in the later story arcs, and Ryoga comes to save Ranma's and/or Akane's lives on multiple occasions. However, he remains annoyed with Ranma for recurrently making fun of or manipulating him, and their mutual battle prowess competition will likely persist forever. In the late part of the series Ryoga's affection for Akane starts to shift towards the sumo-pig breeder Akari, who becomes his girlfriend. Ryoga is one of the first characters to learn to manipulate his Ki and use it to combat Ranma. His ki attack is named the Shi Shi Hokodan, Lion's roar shot. He taps into his reservoirs through the weight of feelings of rage, frustration, pain, sadness, and despair, to blasts an opponent with a vertical ray of pent up personal energy. Although Ranma does learn the same technique, his personality is much more suited to using emotions of confidence and arrogance. Ryoga further refines the technique, the Shi Shi Hokodan Final Form fires Ki in a towering pillar, which then crashes down, pulverizing his opponent. Ryoga uses this technique while being strangled by Lime. His sorrow at the prospect of dying without being loved by Akane causes him to produce a powerful chi-attack that defeats Lime in a single strike and causes the Musk dragon-prince Herb to feel awe from the display. In terms of raw power, Ryoga seems to be a few times stronger than Ranma, as he has performed such feats as throwing a 400-tonne ice boulder 30-40 meters with a single arm, unconsciously destroyed a 7m-diameter rock without trying (compared to female Ranma needing time to focus to split a 3m version with a full force strike), was paired against Lime, the strongest of the Musk Dynasty, effortlessly threw male Ranma to the ground when the latter attempted to grapple (in the "new dojo student" anime episode), and on one occasion literally repeatedly handled female Ranma like a small baby, including toppling her to the ground and almost knocking her unconscious with a playful single finger tap (traditionally used to admonish small children). He has also demonstrated vastly greater chi-generation, considerably higher durability, and nearly comparable speed and skill. However, he has a clear disadvantage in term of self-control, underhanded strategy, and likely acrobatics. Beyond exceptional self-trained skill, physical abilities, and chi-blasts, Ryoga is able to cause inert matter to explode with the touch of a finger, and, similarly to Kodachi, can cause textiles to easily cut through steel, and manifest a much larger amount of throwing-bandanas than he is able to carry through natural means. He also possesses a strong version of the "warning sense" that allows the martial artists to sense presence/auras, and incoming danger (or in Akane's case occasional premonitions). Regardless, Ryoga has triumphed roughly twice as many times as the reverse if smaller and off-screen battles are included, but usually loses the final round of "event"-themed confrontations through superior strategy or distractions. The two rivals remain a roughly even match throughout most of the series with greatest strengths in different areas. Near the end, the author spoofs their relationship by turning them into two constantly feuding and evenly matched children. By the end of the series Ryoga spends his time wandering through the wilderness, attempting to find, and go on innocent dates with, his pig-breeding girlfriend, while striving to get over his old crush on Akane, and as usual, likely training and amassing new techniques to exceed Ranma — if he can ever find his friend and nemesis. Ryoga is voiced by Kōichi Yamadera in the Japanese anime and by Michael Donovan in the English dub. Ukyo Kuonji an okonomiyaki chef and a childhood friend of Ranma. He meets her during his training with Genma, though he doesn't realize she is a girl, and her father proposes an arranged marriage with his okonomiyaki cart acting as the dowry. Genma ends up stealing the cart and breaking the engagement. She is mocked by other girls for not being feminine enough to keep her fiance, so she gives it up and learns how to act like a boy. She spends ten years learning martial arts to prepare for revenge. Ranma eventually learns that she is female and calls her "cute", which causes her to attempt to reestablish their engagement. She is voiced by Hiromi Tsuru in the Japanese anime and by Kelly Sheridan in the English dub. She calls Ranma "Ran-chan" (usually dubbed as "Ranma-honey" in the English version). Ukyo's style of fighting is a legacy style from her father based on their food preparation, and reminiscent of ninja patterns. She uses food-based techniques to stun, restrain or confuse opponents, as well as a chi-infused "batter dragon", which fuses her techniques into one. She also uses a large spatula as a two handed weapon and has a bandolier of smaller spatulas she uses as thrown projectiles. She is strong, swift, skilled, agile, and has a versatile range of attacks. As a combatant Ukyo has been shown as exactly equal to Shampoo, with the difference that Shampoo appears to have a stronger offense, whereas Ukyo has a stronger defence, which has enabled her to stall Ranma or Ryoga for longer than her rival. Ukyo also has more and stronger special attacks, whereas Shampoo is more devious and can use various mind-control techniques. Happosai is the founder and grandmaster of . He often altenates comically between his role as a evil grandmaster and a more playful role as a sexual pervert. As a very hedonistic short, old man, he openly makes perverse activities his proud hobbies (much to the shame of his own disciples), committing indecencies wilfully such as groping women, peeping at women bathing or undressing, and stealing lingerie (he is often found carrying a big sack of lingerie leaping from house to house). He goes into withdrawals if he is unable to participate in such activities, which causes him to almost die at one point. He attempts to model himself as former ladykiller, but in reality, he was turned down by every woman in the Amazon village, including Cologne, during his youth. He is very sadistic and vengeful, using his two students, Genma and Soun, as slaves and attempting to cripple Ranma for life by taking away his strength. Nevertheless, considering that both Soun and Genma have shown themselves to be powerful Martial Artists, have displayed abilities similar to Happosai, coupled with that their master returned to the Tendo Dojo to train either of them as an official heir to his school, this implies that Happosai did afford Soun and Genma at least some advanced training (though evidently nowhere near enough to outweigh all the injustices he dealt them). Despite his small stature and age, Happosai is arguably the, by far, most powerful known martial artist in the entire series. Even without employing special techniques he is able to effortlessly defeat Ranma, Ryoga, Genma and Soun combined within seconds, or overpower Taro's monster form with a single finger. His defining and most often employed weapons are cannonball-like fuse bombs, ranging from regular to small house-sized, which he can seemingly instantly conjure out of nowhere when needed. He possesses knowledge in ancient martial arts techniques, near-forgotten pressure points on a human body, recipes for alchemical concoctions with various effects, and knowledge of many Chinese and Japanese magical artifacts. Other techniques include turning his body substance similar to air for invisibility, chi-blasts, momentum negation or redirection, and crippling fear generation. He has an enormously powerful large skyscraper-sized battle-aura (looking like a giant version of himself), which alllows him to increase the scale of his fighting to great kaiju proportions for prolonged periods of time, and pushes him far out of the league of virtually any other chatacter. Ranma and his fellow fighters have wisely optioned to simply stay out of sight and run for their lives on the rare occasion when the grandmaster has been in this mode. His main weaknesses are that he is seldom remotely serious and he is susceptible to sucker-attacks while he is distracted by lingerie and women. Happosai is voiced by Ichirō Nagai in the Japanese anime and by Paul Dobson in the English dub. Hinako Ninomiya is a teacher hired by Principal Kuno for the purpose of disciplining Furinkan High's many delinquent students, particularly Ranma. She has a reputation for being a very successful reformer, though her child-like body causes surprise. She was very sickly as a child, and while in the hospital, Happosai rearranged her metabolism to allow her to absorb the auras of others to increase her health, though his reason for doing so was to allow him to escape enraged nurses, whose panties he had stolen, by having her absorb their auras. Her body ages much more slowly than other people due to the altered metabolism, so she still has the body of a child despite being an adult. She is voiced by Yumi Tōma in the anime adaptation, and by Janyse Jaud in the English adaptation. Hinako's only anime appearances, however, have been in one episode of the 1990s OVA series and in the 2008 Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep OVA. After absorbing a person's aura, her body becomes that of an adult, and she can then fire the energy back at her opponent, though she also returns to her actual form. The ability can be countered by pressing five specific pressure points, and it can be removed by doing so every day for a month, though the action makes the attacker look like a molester, as it forces them to grab her left breast, so Ranma gives up on the idea. While in her child form, she generally acts very spastic, childish and immature, and in her adult form, she acts like an elegant, confident, and somewhat vain adult woman, though either form always enjoys sweets, attractions, and video games, eats like a slob, and doesn't properly take care of her apartment. Hinako is obsessed with enforcing discipline and justice at Furinkan High, and she will do so at any moment if she feels someone is being a delinquent. Her primary target in this endeavor has been Ranma, whom she wishes to take care of so that everyone else will fall in line. Even so, her dedication to teaching also means she wants him to succeed in her classes, and has made an effort to help him with his studies. She is in love with Soun Tendo, and despite his rejection, she is always in pursuit to marry him. Hikaru Gosunkugi is an unpopular student in Akane and Ranma's class. He is desperately in love with Akane, and tries to get rid of Ranma by using extraordinary items, or his non-existent voodoo abilities. Hikaru has a much larger part in the manga than in the anime, where he does not appear until the sixth season. The character of Sasuke Sarugakure, the Kuno family ninja, was invented to take most of the parts that Hikaru originally performed. He is voiced by Issei Futamata in the Japanese anime and by Michael Benyaer in the English dub. Tofu Ono Dr. is a chiropractor who runs a moxibustion and acupuncture clinic in Nerima. His office is located near the Tendo dojo. He has known their family for a long time. In addition to his medical skills, he is very knowledgeable about martial arts techniques. He uses his knowledge of pressure points and other medicine to help Ranma and the others. He is hopelessly in love with Kasumi. Whenever he sees her, he becomes nervous, loses his ability to focus on what he is doing, his glasses become non-transpararent with moisture, and he acts strangely (which, if he happens to be treating a patient at the time, can prove dangerous for the patient). Kasumi is completely oblivious to the effect she has on him, dismissing any of his unusual actions, presumably because she has never seen him act differently. In a similar manner, Dr. Tofu is unaware of the crush Akane has on him at the series' beginning. For a time, he employs both Genma and Shampoo as assistants. He is voiced by Yuji Mitsuya in the Japanese anime and by Ian Corlett and Kirby Morrow in the English dub.. Konatsu is a male ninja raised as a female kunoichi, and in this respect is described as a genius that is born only once every one hundred years. He was raised by his cruel stepmother and stepsisters, who treated him like a slave after the death of his father. Like Ukyo's other suitor Tsubasa Kurenai, his face and body are indistinguishable from a female when fully clothed. He generally wears female battle attire and casual clothing, speaks and acts like humble and subservient Japanese woman, and he is generally quite shy. He has feelings for Ukyo Kuonji, though they go unanswered, and he is often happy to dress in male clothing to help attract customers to her restaurant, though the outfits are generally overly decorated. He uses trickery and traps in battle, and often utilizes shuriken, smoke bombs, in his hands lethal (cheap) paper swords, a whirlwind of paper bills, and the "Duplicating Body Technique", which allows him to create up to four doubles, though he has not used it in battle. When Konatsu is fighting full force he is more than Ranma can handle while holding back in the no-damage manner used to incapacitate most female fighters, but he does not appear to be as formidable as Ranma, Ryoga, Ryu, or Mousse when they are trying hard. Konatsu does not appear in the anime version. Akari Unryu comes from a long line of trainers who raise and train pigs for sumo-type fighting. Akari loves pigs, and their potential strength as warriors. Her favorite, Katsunishiki, is one of the best in the country and her grandfather states that only someone who can defeat it in battle is worthy to marry Akari. Ryoga defeats it, which causes Akari to fall in love with him, and she falls for him even more after finding out that he his curse transforms him into a small pig. She attempts to learn to hate pigs to appease him, but she is unable to do so. She understands his poor sense of direction and provides him with a map to his destination before their dates. Tsubasa Kurenai is a master of disguise, who often dresses up as various inanimate objects or plants. He also constantly dresses up like a girl and has a feminine personality to match, which causes confusion to anyone he meets. He has been in love with Ukyo Kuonji since they went to school together, and is thus jealous of Ranma, who he believes to have stolen Ukyo. He later attempts to date Ranma's female form, but Ranma, thinking Tsubasa to be female, attempts to set him up with his male form because he feels sorry for Tsubasa. Ranma eventually learns that Tsubasa is a male, which leads to violence. Tsubasa is not a trained martial artist, but he has proven to possess strength ample enough to roughhouse Ranma, and he can still cause trouble with his ridiculous tactics and unpredictability. He most commonly disguises himself as a mailbox, but also often poses as Ucchan's Okonomiyaki sign in order to watch Ukyo, a tree, a trash can, a barrel, and various other objects. He is voiced by Eiko Yamada in the anime adaptation, Saffron Henderson and Kathleen Barr in the English adaptations. The Golden Pair and are a pair of martial-arts-ice-skaters known as The Golden Pair. Azusa is very immature. Often, when she finds cute things, she gives them equally cute names and takes them home, even if they clearly don't belong to her. She meets any person attempting to stop her from doing so with violence. Mikado, her partner and classic playboy, in particular is often to target of her assaults with blunt objects. Azusa comes into conflict with Akane by apprehending the latter's pet piglet P-chan, and renaming it to Charlotte. When Akane wants it back, Azusa challenges her to a match to determine the rightful owner. Mikado earnes a corresponding challenge from Ranma by trying to steal a kiss from Akane's lips, and later earnes his full fury, by kissing Ranma's female form. Despite Ranma's lack of skating skill, Mikado is narrowly bested in personal combat during a fight on skates. The official showdown, called the Charlotte Cup, turnes into a long, hard, three-way battle between The Golden Pair and their frequently distracted and shifting opponents Ranma, Akane and Ryoga. In the manga, they only appear once, but they have a cameo appearance in the first movie. And Azusa has an additional appearance in an episode of the TV series. There she takes Tatewaki and Sasuke as two of her cute playthings. Azusa is voiced by Naoko Matsui in Japanese and Cathy Weseluck (also the voice actress for Shampoo) in English; Mikado's voice actors are Kazuhiko Inoue and Ian James Corlett. Ryu Kumon is a wandering martial artist and master of the Yamasenken. When he was 6 years old, he and his father were a very poor family that owned the shoddy Kumon Dojo. One day Ryu's father had an encounter with Genma Saotome. After Genma found out about the Kumons' financial problems, he gave Ryu's father a scroll containing the techniques of the deadly secret art of Yamasenken, a.k.a. Fist of One Thousand Mountains. This led Ryu's father to believe he could use the Yamasenken to restore his dojo, but when he practiced its attacks indoors he ended up destroying the building, causing it to fall on top of him which led to his death. With his last moments of life, he gave Ryu the scroll and told him to find the scroll containing the companion Umisenken. Since then Ryu has traveled alone without any family or friends which led to his harsh and untrusting nature. Ten years later, he comes across Genma's wife Nodoka, when saving her from a rampaging bear, she tells him that he is her long lost son, Ranma, since the scroll he is carrying has Ranma's name written on it. While somewhat surprised by his coincidental good fortune in encountering the wife of Genma, Ryu immediately takes the opportunity to play along, in order to find the Umisenken scroll, and takes up residence within her house. Ranma discovers that Ryu is misleading his mother, and after being beaten and threatened to be exposed if he interfered, decides to learn the stealthy Umisenken technique from his father, which is developed as a direct counter to the brutal and powerful Yamasenken. Once Ranma mastered the Umisenken, he finally managed to defeat Ryu after a harsh and difficult battle. He is voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto. Shinnosuke and his Grandfather both live in the forest of Ryugenzawa, where they protect the local villagers from the giant animals that they once kept as pets. Years ago when Akane was vacationing with her family in Ryugenzawa, she got lost in the forest and was attacked by a giant platypus. However she was saved by Shinnosuke. Some time later,when Shinnosuke was near death after being scratched by the platypus's venomous claws, his grandfather took some of the Water of Life and fed it to Shinnosuke. Shinnosuke survived, but developed a dependency on the Water of Life. Years later, in the present, Akane once again hears about the forest of Ryugenzawa in a television advertisement asking for help in combating the increasing numbers of monsters and remembers Shinnosuke saving her. In an attempt to pay back Shinnosuke, Akane travels to Ryugenzawa to find him. In the process, Akane is attacked by a giant creature, and is saved, just like when she was young, by Shinnosuke, who still bears the marks on his back. Although he is now very forgetful, Shinnosuke invites Akane to stay with him and his grandfather. Akane later cures Shinnosuke of his dependancy on the water of life by applying a special moss to his back. Shinnosuke is voiced byTakeshi Kusao in the Japanese anime and Jason Gray-Stanford in English. He later devolps a crush on Akane. Mariko Konjo is the captain of the Seisyun High School cheerleading team. They assault opposing teams by throwing their cheerleading materials. She instantly develops feelings for Kuno after he lands on her, and she believes that Ranma is trying to steal him away. She often speaks in rhymes or spells out words in normal conversation. Mariko uses "Martial Arts Cheerleading", which is meant to interfere with other teams, and make her team feel invincible. Like several other characters virtually everything Mariko does is a gag or parody, in her case with Valley Girl speak and cheerleading motifs. She creates various extravagant displays with the theme of "love" in the name, such as Love Confession Pom-Pom Fireworks, Love Boomerang an Innocent Girl Love Letter Blast, but also has surprisingly efficient oddball special attacks and fighting-skills. She uses her cheerleading tools to attack opponents, such as using batons as bludgeons, or throwing them with incredible stealth and accuracy, to knock out an opposing team without notice, whether directly or through ricochets. She also has a version that can extend to many times its original length. Other attacks include multiple shredding 'razor-pom-poms', and strong (miniskirt-wearing) flying kicks. She proved to be a stronger opponent than either Shampoo or Ukyo, and actually managed to momentarily defeat Ranma with a unexpected staff strike to the jugular. She is voiced by Yuko Kobayashi in the anime adaptation, and by Jocelyn Loewen in the English adaptation. Other native Chinese Pantyhose Taro is a young martial artist, who is born in Jusenkyo. Happosai helps his mother with the birth, and accidentally bathes him in the most accursed spring in the area, and because of the customs of the village, Happosai also names him. His cursed form is has the unique appearance of a Minotaur, with small crane wings which allow him to fly great distances despite his enormous size, and an eel sticking out of his lower back which works as a second set of eyes for Taro during combat. He later integrates an octopus curse to gain a set of tentacles (as well as an ink-blast), which he uses to constrict or confuse his enemies. While others hate their cursed forms, he takes pride in the form's strength and durability in battle. Taro despises his name, wishing to take the name "Awesome Taro", but the only way to change it is to have Happosai agree, though he refuses. Taro is sadistic, ruthless, and power-hungry. He's completely dishonorable and finds it amusing to repeatedly cheat and betray during confrontations, but will help beautiful women who are in trouble. He's not used to being helped, and generally gives disdainful insults as thanks for offered aid. Taro is especially intolerant of Ranma, whom he hates because Ranma calls him "Pantyhose-guy". Perhaps to remind himself of the shame his moniker brings, he wears a pair of pantyhose around his waist like a belt. He has also stated a goal to "take over the world", but seems very clueless in this endeavor. In human form Taro had a certain disadvantage to Ranma during their first confrontation, but his similar tendency to provoke and fight dirty enabled him to gain an edge during their second fight. However, he has not displayed any repertoire of special techniques, has recently been more interested in finding ways to enhance his cursed form than training to increase his skill, and does not appear to be as cunning as a chimaera. He is voiced by Shinnosuke Furumoto in the Japanese anime and by Matt Hill in the English dub. Jusenkyo Guide The Jusenkyo Guide is a tourist guide at the training ground of cursed springs at Jusenkyo. He usually warns anyone that comes there that they should not train there or they will fall under a grave curse but never actually interferes with their decisions. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the hundreds of pools throughout the area, knowing their names, when they became cursed, and the "tragic story" behind each of them. He is also in charge of the guest registry that Pantyhose Taro later uses to track down all the victims of the Jusenkyo curses. He is always very helpful to anyone who visits and tries to offer whatever help he can. Unfortunately, he is not very efficacious, and usually informs the unfortunate cursed victim too late about the curse that fall on to them. Despite his efforts, nearly every character who comes to the springs ends up cursed. The Guide is also an expert on the local area, being knowledgeable about the Chinese Amazons and their customs. The Guide has a young daughter named Plum. He also mentioned having a wife, but she is never seen. He is voiced by Kōichi Yamadera in the Japanese anime and by Ian James Corlett and Michael Donovan in the English dub. Rouge Rouge is a girl from China, who holds a grudge against Pantyhose Taro for stealing the "source of her power." She is vain, shy, melodramatic, sensitive to the point of easily fainting when mentally exhausted, and fond of traditionally "girlish" superstitions like astrology and blood groups. She is violently vengeful when upset, and mostly disregards any damage she causes. She is able to transform into the Hindu deity, Asura, which grants her six arms, three faces with independent minds, and great strength. The form can create lightning storms, or small flaming rocks from her hands, create protective fire around her body, and a turbulent revolving inferno, as well as emit a blinding flash of light. She is susceptible to physical attacks, and her three minds make it hard to think quickly, but her tendency to hover far away and attack from a distance makes her a difficult opponent. She later learns that her "power sources" are actually common magnetic disks used to prevent stiffening in one's back, which is a problem for her cursed form. Herb is a member of the Musk Dynasty, an ancient community of Chinese martial arts devoted to transforming animals into humans using a cursed spring and breeding with them in order to produce heirs with bolstered genetic fighting potential. Herb is part of the royal line, which is descended from dragons, granting him chi-mastery. He is raised without female contact, as is every other male, and before being married, he attempts to use a spring to familiarize himself with women by transforming a monkey. Distracted by breasts, he accidentally falls into the spring and becomes trapped in a female form. He and his two servants, Mint and Lime, attempt to find an artifact to reverse the effect. Herb is callous, sadistic, and irate, showing little respect for the worth of anyone beyond himself. Due to his experience with the monkey that cursed him, Herb possesses an irrational hatred towards female breasts, and he is easily distracted and enraged by the sight of them. Herb is an immensely skilled and ruthless martial artist, who consistently outmatched Ranma in direct combat. He believes himself to be a complete master of manipulating chi, though he is easily surprised by unknown attacks. He has the ability to fly, use supersonic strikes, multiple flexible chi blasts, a sword made from chi, and flying blades of chi, as well as the Amazon Hiryu Shoten Ha techique, which uses the power of an opponent to fuel a tornado. He is voiced by Katsuaki Arima. Herb's two main, fearsome and bloodthirsty, but gullible and inexperienced, bodyguards are named Lime (Rimu) and Mint (Minte). Lime is of the tiger-clan, a massive master warrior dressed in animal skins, and the physically strongest and most durable character in the series, dwarfing even Ryoga in these areas, with an upper maximum of over 100,000 tonnes. Mint looks like a short young man, but is part wolf, wears the skin of one over his head, is a master swordsman, and the swiftest character in the series, more than a match for Mousse even when the latter goes all out, and utilises a limited number of throwing knives, but is easily distracted. However, although physically superior to Herb they have not displayed any special techniques. Saffron Saffron is a humanoid phoenix, ruling over a tribe of bird-human hybrids transformed from the waters of the cursed springs. He attempts to use the waters to become an adult and provide heat and light for his people, but the process strangles the flow of the springs, which means that others cursed by the springs have no means to cure themselves. He is selfish and territorial, and only cares for his own people. He tends to be cold and condescending even towards those who treat him with kindness and loyalty. Saffron has mastery over fire, allowing him to use a number of attacks related to it, up to a gigantic fireball capable of vaporising several mountaintops in its path, making it the most powerful attack in the series. Saffron is able to fly, and is skilled with the Kinjakan, a ancient weapon of his people. He can rapidly heal missing limbs, and he is reborn as an infant after violent deaths, but can be beaten unconscious by severe blunt impacts, and his physical defenses are very low due to being pampered since birth. Saffron's main servants, beyond his chamberlain, are Kiima, Koruma, and Masala (like himself given pun names sounding identical to spices or spicy dishes, similar to the Musk being named after herbs, and other rural Chinese from female beauty accessories). Kiima is part seabird, the loyal, crafty, proud, haughty, and petty captain of his guard, as well as an expert swordswoman, spy, and seductress. She is capable of flight; using an extremely lethal, mystically enforced metal-slicing, multiple "razor-feather" discharge; communicating with birds or commanding large throngs to perform complex tasks across continents, such as information-gathering, retrievals, or abductions; using surikomi/imprinting eggs to ambush, brainwash, and enslave opponents to turn on their own; or various Jusenkyo water to transform into female human disguises. Her latest being a copy of Akane Tendo. Her weaknesses are that she has limited unarmed combat skills, turns human from cold water, and cannot fly in times of rain. Shampoo intensely hates her due to the humiliation of enslavement. Koruma and Masala are Kiima's loyal, dedicated, and easily impressed part crow young bodyguards and handymen. They are stronger and apparently much more dangerous hand-to-hand fighters than herself, are similarly capable of flight as long as they avoid cold water, and can use weaker versions of her feather attack, but are easily confused and dependent on her guidance. Kiima enjoys keeping them around for flattery. Merchandise Reception Writing for Anime News Network (ANN), Bamboo Dong compliments Takahashi's character designs as being "easily recognizable", but laments that "everyone looks largely the same", with polar facial expressions and eyebrows, which "seem to always be in a state of unnatural anguish", while "the different age groups are lumped under the same stature and facial types." Also writing for ANN, Carlo Santos disagrees, praising the series' "iconic character designs" for their "great facial expressions" and "distinctive features", which "always make it easy to tell who's who". In an interview with Justin Sevakis for ANN, Anna Exter, a professional anime translator, said that, when she was first introduced to anime, she found the series' characters were "absolutely the cutest things" that she "had ever seen". Writing for THEM Anime Reviews, Raphael See praises the cast of the anime series' first season, saying that they are both "hilarious" and "cute" and that they "help make the series more than just another teenage sitcom". External links * Cast of Characters at Ranma ½ Perfect Edition References * pt:Anexo:Lista de personagens de Ranma ½